Letters to the Editor

Main Street Needs To Improve Clutter

To the Editor:

Congestion on Huron Street is getting to be a major problem. On my recent trip to downtown Mackinac, I noticed that street traffic was blocked by the many horse-drawn wagons and carriages. There were three tour carriages picking up passengers. Also several more parked in the middle of the street, awaiting their turns.

Along with dray deliveries, taxis, and pedestrians in the street, traffic had come to a standstill. When traffic did begin to move, cyclists had to pedal through the rivulets of urine caused by the many standing horses.

I hope this jam-up was an aberration, but I suspect that it may reoccur on any high volume day.

Imagine the picture we are painting in the minds of the tourist. Is this the image we want to convey? I think not. There must be solutions. Can’t the carriages be re-routed? Perhaps deliveries and pickups could be restricted to low volume times. The police could shoo pedestrians back on the sidewalks and actively control the horse-drawn traffic. Maybe the ferry companies would announce rules for pedestrians to all inbound Island visitors.

I know it is difficult and even painful to change established practice. But isn’t our long-term goal to have a clean and uncluttered village that will attract even more visitors?

Harold Strayer

Forest Way

Mackinac Island

Show Flag More Respect

To the Editor:

We work at the place that receives all the compostables, recyclables, and material to be landfilled. Ironically, we also receive a specific item that should never be handled at this facility. That item is the American flag. We find “our flag” in blue (landfill) bags and in mixed debris wagons, in fact, just this year. What a shameful way to handle the flag that has been fought for by many generations of Americans.

We currently have military personnel fighting around the world to preserve what “our flag” stands for. We all know a veteran that also served in the past to preserve our rights.

If you don’t know what to do with “your flag” once it has been flown for the last time, please contact a service organization in your area or your local Boy Scouts of America. We consider ourselves defenders of “the flag,” and people that were raised to respect what “our flag” represents. We say, do the same.

Make sure when the life of “your flag” is over, dispose of it properly. Don’t send it to the landfill.